Genetic Phenomena Commons^™

P33. Design And Evaluation Of An Escherichia Coli Biomarker For Indication Of Ph, Kevin X. Zhou, Luana Langlois, Ashmita Singh, John Prince

Western Research Forum

Measuring pH is one of the most commonly used techniques in both the laboratory as well as the field due to its importance in a multitude of biochemical processes. Traditional methods of measuring pH may be highly developed in accuracy and precision but often involve disruption of the environment. Biological markers offer an alternative that allows for long-term pH monitoring. This innovative approach allows for vast applications such as in the manufacturing, food processing and research industries. Under moderate acidic conditions, the asr (acid shock RNA) gene is highly inducible and has been demonstrated to be crucial for growth at ...

A Study Of Subthreshold Hallucinatory Experiences And Their Relationship To Genetic Liability For Schizophrenia, Hannah Young

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background

One of the hallmarks of schizophrenia is the presence of psychosis. However, subthreshold psychotic symptoms characterized by attenuated delusions and hallucinations also occur in healthy individuals from the general population. A body of evidence suggests that this phenomenon represents a continuum of schizophrenia, with severe and attenuated symptoms sharing a common genetic etiology. Hallucinations are one subthreshold psychotic symptom in which a clear continuum has been observed. The aim of this study is to assess if subthreshold hallucinatory experiences and schizophrenia share genetic liability.

Method

3,028 participants were administered the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (LSHS), which measures a predisposition ...

The Autocrine Role Of Proteoglycan-4 (Prg4) In Modulating Osteoarthritic Synoviocyte Proliferation And Expression Of Matrix Degrading Enzymes, Ali Alquraini, Maha Jamal, Ling Zhang, Tannin Schmidt, Gregory D. Jay, Khaled A. Elsaid

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Lubricin/proteoglycan 4 (PRG4) is a mucinous glycoprotein secreted by synovial fibroblasts and superficial zone chondrocytes. Recently, we showed that recombinant human PRG4 (rhPRG4) is a putative ligand for CD44 receptor. rhPRG4-CD44 interaction inhibits cytokine-induced rheumatoid arthritis synoviocyte proliferation. The objective of this study is to decipher the autocrine function of PRG4 in regulating osteoarthritic synoviocyte proliferation and expression of catabolic and pro-inflammatory mediators under basal and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β)- stimulated conditions.

Methods: Cytosolic and nuclear levels of nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB) p50 and p65 subunits in Prg4+/+ and Prg4-/- synoviocytes were studied using western blot. Nuclear translocation ...

A Tale Of Two Species: Evolvability, Genomic Context, And Pathogen Forecasting, Meghan May

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Presentations

Dr. Meghan May gives an overview presentation of her research on evolution of virulence and pathogen prediction. The focus of the presentation is a group of organisms called mycoplasmas, and covered subjects include: Mycoplasma synoviae, Mycoplasma gallisepticum, genomic context, predictive modeling, sequence evolution, and genome reduction.

Regulation Of Polycystin-1 Function By Calmodulin Binding, Nicholas Doerr, Yidi Wang, Kevin R. Kipp, Guangyi Liu, Jesse J. Benza, Vladimir Pletnev, Tengis S. Pavlov, Alexander Staruschenko, Ashraf M. Mohieldin, Maki Takahashi, Surya M. Nauli, Thomas Weimbs

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) is a common genetic disease that leads to progressive renal cyst growth and loss of renal function, and is caused by mutations in the genes encoding polycystin-1 (PC1) and polycystin-2 (PC2), respectively. The PC1/PC2 complex localizes to primary cilia and can act as a flow-dependent calcium channel in addition to numerous other signaling functions. The exact functions of the polycystins, their regulation and the purpose of the PC1/PC2 channel are still poorly understood. PC1 is an integral membrane protein with a large extracytoplasmic N-terminal domain and a short, ~200 amino acid C-terminal ...

Investigation Of Genetic Markers In Sub-Elite Australia Rules Football Players, Ysabel Jacob, Ashley Cripps, Tess Evans, Paola Chivers, Christopher Joyce, Ryan Anderton

Christopher Joyce

Law And The Sciences Of The Brain/Mind, Stephen J. Morse

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter is a submission to the Oxford Handbook of Law and the Regulation of Technology edited by Roger Brownsword. It considers whether the new sciences of the brain/mind, especially neuroscience and behavioral genetics, are likely to transform the law’s traditional concepts of the person, agency and responsibility. The chapter begins with a brief speculation about why so many people think these sciences will transform the law. After reviewing the law’s concepts, misguided challenges to them, and the achievements of the new sciences, the chapter confronts the claim that these sciences prove that we are really not ...

Identification Of Potential Drug Targets In Cancer Signaling Pathways Using Stochastic Logical Models, Peican Zhu, Hamidreza Montazeri Aliabadi, Hasan Uludag, Jie Han

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The investigation of vulnerable components in a signaling pathway can contribute to development of drug therapy addressing aberrations in that pathway. Here, an original signaling pathway is derived from the published literature on breast cancer models. New stochastic logical models are then developed to analyze the vulnerability of the components in multiple signalling sub-pathways involved in this signaling cascade. The computational results are consistent with the experimental results, where the selected proteins were silenced using specific siRNAs and the viability of the cells were analyzed 72 hours after silencing. The genes elF4E and NFkB are found to have nearly no ...

Transgenerational Epigenetic Effects Of Cocaine On Circadian Behavior And Cocaine Reward, Victoria Shaker

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Transgenerational Epigenetic Effects of Cocaine on Circadian Behavior and Cocaine Reward

Victoria Shaker, Ashley Shemery, Alex Yaw, & J. David Glass.

Department of Biological Sciences and School of Biomedical Sciences

Professor Glass served as the primary advisor. Ashley Shemery and Alex Yaw served as co-advisors.

Hypothesis: Cocaine irreversibly lengthens circadian period (tau), which could underlie the significant health issues of cocaine addiction. Others have reported that rewarding effects of paternal cocaine use are transgenerational. We hypothesize that the disruptive effects of cocaine on tau may also be transgenerational, causing altered subjective cocaine reward response in offspring (F1).

Methods: Male mice were exposed to cocaine-water (0.5 mg/ml) or water (control) for 6 wks. Immediately following treatment, the mice were mated with cocaine naïve dams. F1 reference for cocaine or sucrose (to test for reward specificity) was analyzed using a dual bottle (water and drug [0.15 mg/ml] or sucrose [2%]) free-choice regimen. Tau was analyzed using activity sensors with computerized data acquisition.

Results and Conclusions: Lengthened tau was evident in sires with forced cocaine compared to controls (24.18+0.17 vs. 24.07+0.02; p0.05). These data reveal that there is no transgenerational transmission of cocaine-lengthened tau in F1 males, but there was an alteration of tau in F1 females. Significantly, paternal cocaine intake significantly altered F1 preference for cocaine, but not sucrose, suggesting specificity to drug reward. Thus, cocaine addiction could involve a transgenerational paternal mode of inheritance.

Keywords: epigenetics, transgenerational, cocaine, sucrose, mice, sex differences, drug abuse, circadian, biological rhythms, addiction

Congenital Stationary Night Blindness In The Dog: Common Mutation In The Rpe65 Gene Indicates Founder Effect, Gustavo Aguirre, Victoria Baldwin, Sue Pearce-Kelling, Kristina Narfström, Kunal Ray, Gregory Acland

Gustavo D. Aguirre, VMD, PhD

Purpose: To clone and characterize the canine RPE65 cDNA from normal dog, examine for mutations, and establish if the mutation identified in Swedish briard dogs with retinal dystrophy is present in dogs of the same breed that originated from the United States and other countries, and are affected with congenital stationary night blindness. Methods: Fifteen briard dogs were studied, of which 10 were affected with csnb, and five were clinically normal. In addition, we tested samples from four Swedish dogs, and samples from a briard affected with progressive retinal atrophy. RPE65 cDNA was cloned a from retinal cDNA library by ...

The Anti-Inflammatory Caspase-12 Gene Does Not Influence Sle Phenotype In African-Americans, Trista Fuchs, Jennifer A. Kelly, Emily Simon, Kathy L. Sivils, Evan Hermel

College of Osteopathic Medicine (TUC) Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Comorbidity Between Alzheimer’S Disease And Seizure Episodes, Maryam Amini

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

A mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which overexpress the human amyloid precursor protein (APP), experience Kainic Acid (KA) induced seizures that are more severe than wild type (WT) mice. The latency and severity of seizures observed in AD mice are similar to those of Synaptophysin knockout (Syp KO) mice. Addition of amyloid plaques (Aβ) to cells in vitro leads to the breakdown of Syp-VAMP2 complex. In the present study, we investigated if the breakdown of Syp-VAMP2 complex is responsible for the observed seizure activity in AD mice. The binding of cholesterol to Syp is necessary for biogenesis ...

Molecular Genetics Of Ms4a6a And Alzheimer's Disease, Ryan Harpole

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

Increased Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk has previously been associated with a SNP called rs610932 near the gene MS4A6A. The goal of this experiment was to quantify the expression of two MS4A6A isoforms in the brains of AD and non-AD subjects, particularly as a function of rs610932 genotype. According to an article titled “Alzheimer’s Disease Susceptibility Variants in the MS4A6A Gene are Associated with Altered Levels of MS4A6A Expression in Blood”, MS4A6A has four different isoforms that have been reported to be differentially expressed in the blood of AD subjects compared to non-AD subjects (Petroula et al., 2014). After ...

Caspase-12, Rheumatoid Arthritis, And The Dog That Didn’T Bark, Evan Hermel

College of Osteopathic Medicine (TUC) Publications and Research

CASPASE-12 (CASP12) has an anti-inflammatory function during infection. To determine and if CASP12 could protect against inflammatory disease, we investigated the distribution of CASP12 alleles in African-Americans (AA) with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). CASP12 homozygous patients had lower baseline joint narrowing and total disease scores. However, there was no significant difference for distribution of CASP12 genotypes between AA controls and patients with RA, or any other clinical criteria for this disease. CASP12 homozygosity appears to be, at best a subtle protective factor for some aspects of RA in AA patients. This raises an intriguing issue as to how this protein would ...

Caspase-12 And Lupus: The Curious Case Of The Dog That Didn’T Bark, Evan Hermel

College of Osteopathic Medicine (TUC) Publications and Research

CASPASE-12 (CASP12) has an anti-inflammatory function during infection, and is a risk factor for sepsis in African-Americans (AA). To determine if CASP12 could be protective for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in AA, we genotyped AA SLE patients and controls. We found that, at best, there was a weak association between CASP12 genotype with the absence of anti-dsDNA autoantibodies in SLE patients. No effect was seen upon serum interleukin-1 beta levels, nor was any other protective effect noted for the CASP12 genotype, whether upon association with SLE, or any of the 11 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria. We concluded that ...

Pharmacogenomic Management Of Familial Hypercholesterolemia: An Integrative Review Of The Literature, Brian V. Skibo

Honors in the Major Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and emerging pharmacogenomics therapies that propose to lower serum low density lipid (LDL) levels. The search of various data bases resulted in nine research articles being selected for review. Syntheses of the articles suggest emerging phamacogenomic drug therapy can improve treatment outcomes for individuals with a diagnosis of FH. The Human Genome Project (HGP) has had far reaching applications for genomic technologies and pharmacagenomic interventions, tailored to human conditions associated with select genomic traits. Synthesis of nine research articles demonstrate that little is known on the topic and reveals ...

Overt Cleft Palate Phenotype And Tbx1 Genotype Correlations In Velo-Cardio-Facial/Digeorge/22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome Patients, Sean Herman, Tingwei Guo, Donna Mcdonald Mcginn, Anna Blonska, Alan Shanske, Anne Bassett, Eva Chow, Mark Bowser, Molly Sheridan, Frits Beemer, Koen Devriendt, Ann Swillen, Jeroen Breckpot, Maria Digilio, Bruno Marino, Bruno Dallapiccola, Courtney Carpenter, Xin Zheng, Jacob Johnson, Jonathan Chung, Anne Marie Higgins, Nicole Philip, Tony Simon, Karlene Coleman, Damian Heine Suñer, Jordi Rosell, Wendy Kates, Marcella Devoto, Elaine Zackai, Tao Wang, Robert Shprintzen, Beverly Emanuel, Bernice Morrow, International Chromosome 22q11.2 Consortium

Robert J. Shprintzen

Velo-cardio-facial syndrome/DiGeorge syndrome, also known as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is the most common microdeletion syndrome, with an estimated incidence of 1/2,000 – 1/4,000 live births. Approximately 9–11% of patients with this disorder have an overt cleft palate (CP), but the genetic factors responsible for CP in the 22q11DS subset are unknown. The TBX1 gene, a member of the T-box transcription factor gene family, lies within the 22q11.2 region that is hemizygous in patients with 22q11DS. Inactivation of one allele of Tbx1 in the mouse does not result in CP, but inactivation of ...

Role Of Stat3 In Human Nk Cell Functions, Prasad V. Phatarpekar

UT GSBS Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Natural Killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes, which play a critical role in the immune response against malignant cells and microbial infections. NK cells are equipped with activating receptors, which upon detecting ligands expressed on stressed cells induce cytolytic activity of NK cells. Stimulation of NK cell proliferation and priming of NK cytolytic capability are accomplished by cytokines, which mediate their signals mainly through JAK-STAT signaling pathway. Previously, we found that K562 cells genetically modified to express membrane bound IL-21 (mbIL-21), which predominantly activates STAT3, induce robust expansion and activation of human NK cells. Further investigations revealed role of STAT3 ...

Problem Solving Skill And Obesity In Children, Caitlin R. Spano

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract:

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a problem that leads to many serious health effects including early maturation, decreased quality of life and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. In 2012, over one third of children were considered obese (Childhood Obesity Facts 2015). Efforts have been made to reduce this number but they have not been fully successful (Nutrition Standards for School Meals 2015, Prevalence of Childhood obesity in the United States 2011-2012 2015). What other factors are causing kids to choose foods that lead to weight gain.

Literature Review: In research regarding psychological motivations of overeating, there has been a correlation ...

Functional Analysis Of Genomic Variation And Impact On Molecular And Higher Order Phenotypes, Ashutosh Kumar Pandey

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Reverse genetics methods, particularly the production of gene knockouts and knockins, have revolutionized the understanding of gene function. High throughput sequencing now makes it practical to exploit reverse genetics to simultaneously study functions of thousands of normal sequence variants and spontaneous mutations that segregate in intercross and backcross progeny generated by mating completely sequenced parental lines. To evaluate this new reverse genetic method we resequenced the genome of one of the oldest inbred strains of mice—DBA/2J—the father of the large family of BXD recombinant inbred strains. We analyzed ~100X wholegenome sequence data for the DBA/2J strain ...